[Rumor] Cortana voice assistant launching in April for Windows Phone

One of the most highly anticipated new Windows Phone features is the Cortana voice assistant. Despite being rumored many times we don’t really know a lot about what Cortana will even do. Today the MSFTnerd has posted a few alleged details on how Cortana will work and when it will launch. We are treating this information as a rumor and you should too.

First, how will Cortana be activated? MSFTnerd says the phrase “Bing tell me” will turn Cortana on. After that phrase you can ask things like “will it rain today?” or “how do I get to [blank]?” He goes on to say that Cortana will be voiced by Jen Taylor, the same person who voiced her in the Halo games. That alone would make a lot of people happy.

Now for the rumored launch details. MSFTnerd says Cortana will launch in April on Lumia phones as a beta for US developers. Next it will be added to the Bing iOS app the following Fall, and then in 2015 it will be included in all Windows devices. Other English-speaking countries will get Cortana through 2015-16.

What are your thoughts on these claims? We feel that some of the info is probably accurate, but the launch dates could be wrong. We hope all of this is true except for only Lumia phones getting it at first and other countries having to wait so long. What do you think?